Chapter 374 The reflection arc is slightly longer
Although a breakthrough was made in the final stage, which allowed the Haihan people to make small concessions, Ruan Jinggui did not feel even the slightest bit happy in his heart. The Haihan people's apparent concession, in disguise, drew a time line of life and death for South Vietnam - thirty days later, the Haihan people's warships will appear on the coast of South Vietnam at any time, and by then the court may no longer be able to use "pirates to cause chaos". This is a far-fetched excuse to fool the people. Moreover, the Hai Han people ignored South Vietnam's request from beginning to end to put pressure on North Vietnam and Champa to cease the war.
Just one Hai Han is enough to make the South Vietnamese court anxious. In the south and north, there are two sworn enemies, North Vietnam and Champa, who are eager to take turns sending troops to attack South Vietnam. This has put Hue Prefecture in a situation where it is besieged on all sides. The high-ranking officials in the court originally expected that the Haihan people would intervene in the atrocities committed by the two neighbors through negotiations, but they never thought that the Haihan people had no intention of allowing the debt to be forgiven.
During the negotiations, the executive committee did not place strict restrictions on his movements. Instead, he was taken to visit various places by dedicated personnel every day, with the purpose of allowing him to "feel the advanced nature of Haihan's social system."
Ruan Jinggui is just a businessman from a small country. He can't compare the advantages of Haihan's social system. However, in his opinion, the local civil affairs system is far stricter than that in Annan, but the people's living standards are much higher than that in Annan. . Although there are many strange rules here that Ruan Jinggui cannot understand, and even trivial things like whether to keep left or right when walking on the street are clearly stated, he has to admit that the social order here is very good, and in Shengli There are no idlers or gangs of beggars begging along the streets in Hong Kong. Everything seems orderly.
Although Ruan Jinggui himself has never been a civil affairs official, he was born in a family of officials. He was influenced by his experience and knew that this kind of good social order not only requires the maintenance of the legal system, but more importantly, the people's lives must be prosperous enough. If most people don't have enough to eat or wear, how can they have the heart to abide by those weird rules?
Under the deliberate arrangement of the Executive Committee, Ruan Jinggui also had close contact with several families of immigrants who had moved from Annan. These families have settled in Victory Port for more than half a year. They have basically become orthodox Haihan naturalized citizens. They did not show much surprise at the arrival of the envoys from the motherland. They just introduced Ruan Jinggui calmly. Some details of life that interest him.
The five members of Wu Shang's family were all brought to Victory Port by Hai Han's coal ship in Thanh Hoa when they were escaping the war. In Annam, they were already landless and propertyless people, and they could only sell themselves as serfs if they continued to stay. Or they could be captured and become peasants and soldiers. However, after arriving at Victory Port, it was undoubtedly a new life for them.
"The leaders of Haihan built houses for us, gave us food, and gave us clothes. We can get paid for working here. We have the protection of the militia and don't have to worry about war. It's good here." Wu Shang was weaving a basket with bamboo strips. Talking casually about his life situation. He was a bamboo craftsman when he was in Annan. After coming to Victory Port, he resumed his old profession and made a living by making earth-carrying baskets for the Ministry of Construction.
"But you are Annan people!" Ruan Jinggui couldn't help but complain: "Now the Haihan people want to destroy our country, but you are still working for them!"
Wu Shang raised his head and glanced at Ruan Chenggui, and said calmly: "The country? I only know that when our family was about to starve to death outside Thanh Hoa City, the country had no intention of saving us."
"That's because the traitors in Thang Long Province don't care about people's livelihood. We in Hue Province are the orthodox Li dynasty and will restore the country soon..."
Ruan Jinggui planned to give this ignorant man a good ideological and political lesson and help him reshape his true origins and reshape correct historical values, but Wu Shang interrupted him rudely: "When the orthodox court is killing innocent people like us, He didn't show any mercy. My brother and sister's family were all honest farmers. As soon as the army from the south came, they robbed his family of food and money, and finally killed everyone in his family... This kind of imperial court Even if the country is restored, what good will it do to us people?”
"...You...this is really treasonous!" Ruan Jinggui was speechless for a moment and didn't know how to refute, so he could only put a big hat on him.
Early last year, South Vietnam launched a counterattack northward, and indeed some looting of people occurred. As the saying goes, bandits are like a comb, soldiers are like a grate, and officials are like a haircut. Ordinary people in war zones naturally become the targets of looting. The South Vietnamese army obviously did not leave any room for the people in the enemy-occupied areas, burning, killing and looting wantonly, causing a large number of people to abandon their homes and property and flee north - this is what enabled the crossing group to obtain immigrants from North Vietnam. one of the fundamental reasons.
"The villain is now a naturalized citizen of Haihan. He has acquired the native place of Haihan and is no longer a citizen of the Annan Kingdom. This villain cannot bear such a treasonous statement." The work in Wu Shang's hands kept going. The words he said were all the same, which made Ruan Jinggui feel heartbroken.
Ruan Jinggui visited several families of naturalized people from Annan, and their reactions were not much different from those of Wu Shang's family. In the eyes of these naturalized residents, Sanya, where food, clothing, housing, transportation and safety are well guaranteed, is far better than Annan, which has been war-torn for many years, and they have not suffered unfairness because of their status as outsiders after coming here. Treatment - Of course, in fact, more than 70% of the population in the entire Sanya area are outsiders, and there are not many real aborigines. The people felt that the treatment they received here, the surrounding living environment, and the future development prospects were far from what they had been in Annan in the past. Therefore, when Ruan Chenggui asked them if they were willing to return to Annan, they all made it clear refused.
This situation made Ruan Chenggui very disappointed. He originally held out a glimmer of hope that he could mobilize a group of Annan immigrants to return to the country to join the war. There were also many Annan-origin militiamen in the Haihan Militia. If these people could be mobilized, maybe there would be success. Hope to change the attitude of Haihan people. However, the facts once again dealt him a heavy blow mercilessly. Not only were these naturalized people from Annan unwilling to return to their country to join the war, they instead took out all their grievances about leaving their hometowns on the ruling court. If the attitude of ordinary people is like this, let alone the people in the army.
Ruan Jinggui finally had the opportunity to visit the big iron dragon that frightened him up close. Only then did he realize that this thing was not a living creature, but some kind of mechanical device made of fine iron. As for why it could follow the The rails laid on the ground moved quickly, but Ruan Jinggui didn't understand the principle. Seeing that there are many ordinary people riding in the car, it is obvious that this thing is not driven by some mysterious magic.
Then Ruan Jinggui was shocked by the cargo unloaded from the train. One carriage was full of artillery, rifles, ammunition and various armors, swords and guns. Most of these weapons will be sold to Xu Xinsu in Fujian and the North Vietnamese military. A small amount will be supplied to the militia groups of each major shareholder of "Qiong Lianfa". Seeing such a scene, Ruan Jinggui was almost convinced that the firearms troops that appeared in the Champa Kingdom recently must also be armed by Haihan people.
This is of course not an unintentional mistake by the relevant departments, but was deliberately shown to Ruan Jinggui. It is no longer a secret that Haihan's business of selling arms to foreign countries is no longer a secret. After the battle of Lijiazhuang, everyone in Guangdong and Guangxi knows that Haihan is a good hand at making glass and artificial weapons. However, for South Vietnam, which has been isolated from the Haihan system, perhaps they still lack an intuitive understanding of Haihan's weapons manufacturing capabilities, so the relevant departments arranged an opportunity for Ruan Jinggui to learn about Haihan's weapons from the side. Military strength.
Basically all the firearms in South Vietnam come from the Portuguese, and they have no manufacturing capabilities. However, the Haihan people's strength in manufacturing weapons far exceeds that of the Portuguese. Ruan Jinggui was indeed jealous as he watched the black cannons being unloaded from the train onto flatbed trucks and then transferred to the dock for shipment. The South Vietnamese court tried its best to buy only about twenty pieces of artillery from the Portuguese every year. However, the North Vietnamese merchant ship flying the "Zheng" flag at the port was equipped with twenty pieces of artillery in one go. There are several cannons on board, as well as dozens of boxes of muskets. Comparing one person to another is simply infuriating. With the arsenal of Hai Han behind them, North Vietnam does not need to worry about the supply of weapons and equipment being cut off. They are even purchasing more weapons in preparation for continuing to attack South Vietnam. South Vietnam has now lost Portugal as a major supplier and is about to fall into a stage of running out of ammunition and food. The gap in the armament level of the two sides is constantly widening. This reality makes Ruan Jinggui, who was already relatively pessimistic, even more frustrated.
At the end of October, Nguyen Thanh Kuei left Port Victory full of disappointment and returned to Hue, South Vietnam, on a sailboat specially sent for him by the Ministry of Shipping. Apart from gaining a little consideration period for the South Vietnamese court, this trip was basically lackluster. Ruan Chenggui was also shaken by the cruel reality he saw with his own eyes and lost all confidence. He only hoped that after returning to Hue, he could use his personal experience to make the senior officials in the court calm down and look at the current situation.
However, at this time, the Executive Committee did not have the energy to pay attention to how the South Vietnamese court would react to the results of such negotiations, because there were some new trends in Guangdong that they had to pay attention to.
On the same day that Ruan Jinggui left Victory Port, the Executive Committee received a cable notification from the General Office of the People's Republic of China, stating that the "Eighteen Zhi" had sent envoys to contact them and asked Haihan to stop arms exports to Fujian.
To be honest, "Eighteen Zhi" didn't start to react until this moment, which was something that surprised the executive committee. The troops under Xu Xinsu's command in Fujian Province have gradually begun to use Haihan weapons on the battlefield since the second half of last year, and relied on these sharp weapons to slowly reverse the decline, causing considerable casualties to the armed personnel of the "Eighteen Zhi" . Originally, Xu Xinsu died in the Zhongzuo Suo in this year, but now he is alive and well, and he has been awarded by the court for defeating incoming pirates many times this year.
The "Eighteen Zhi", which had been hit hard, could not help but wonder about the reasons for this change in the battle situation, and the firepower of the defenders had obviously been greatly strengthened. This was why the "Eighteen Zhi" organized several large-scale offensives but failed to do so. The main reason for failure. With the intelligence network of the "Eighteen Zhi" in the coastal area of Fuguang, it is not very difficult to find the source of these sudden large-scale killer weapons in the opponent's camp. The Executive Committee once thought that the most optimistic estimates could be concealed. In the first half of this year, especially in May, the militia launched continuous attacks. After rescuing the siege of Lijiazhuang, they set up the Dangan Island pirates' nest at the Pearl River Estuary, almost completely exposing their strength to the table. As long as the senior officials of "Eighteen Zhi" were not deaf or blind, they should have discovered that there is an inevitable connection between the sudden rise of the Fujian Navy and Haihan.
However, the "Eighteen Zhi" did not send a large number of pirate ships to harass the Pearl River Estuary or even attack Wanshan Port as the Executive Committee feared. Instead, they maintained a strange silence until a few months later, when they suddenly jumped He came out and made an offer to Haihan.
Regarding the sale of arms to the Xu Xinsu Department of the Fujian Navy, the Guangdong Office neither confirmed nor denied it. After discussing with He Xi, the local first and second-in-command Ma Like decided to send the news back to Victory Port first so that the base camp could be prepared. They used the customary Tai Chi technique in the local area to deceive the people of "Eighteen Zhi" first, and then slowly obtained information.
The Executive Committee attached great importance to the fact that "Eighteen Zhi" finally reacted to the extremely long reflex arc. Two hours after receiving the news, the Executive Committee held an emergency meeting to discuss what should be done. How to deal with this.
"Are they going to be polite before fighting?" Ning Qi, who had just heard about this, was a little confused about the attitude of "Eighteen Zhi": "Can I understand their attitude as fear of us?"
"Perhaps the reason you mentioned is really there." Tao Donglai nodded and replied: "Our several battles in the first half of the year, especially the two battles in Guangdong, have made us famous. The Haihan Militia is no longer a secret. Interested people can easily find out the status of our operations. Although the "Eighteen Zhi" are very powerful in the Fujian waters, after all, their base is in Taiwan, which is too far away from the Pearl River Estuary and Sanya. In addition, With Xu Xinsu dragging them there, it would obviously not be a wise move to go on an expedition at this time. If I were in Zheng Zhilong's position, I would probably use negotiation to test the opponent's attitude."
"I would also like to add something." Schneider continued Tao Donglai's point of view: "So far, we have not had a direct armed conflict with the 'Eighteen Zhi', nor have we shown very direct hostility. The only thing that is not conducive to them is the military assistance to the Xu Xinsu Group. Currently, 17% of our foreign trade orders are from Fujian. In addition to Xu Xinsu, there are probably also Eighteen Zhi. 'Businessmen arranged in the mainland. Do you remember the group of pirates that the militia group wiped out on Dangan Island in May? They have been reselling our products to the 'Shibazhi', and there must be more than one doing this. We are one family, and 'Eighteen Zhi' probably doesn't want to be cut off from the supply of certain in-demand products because of bad relations with us."
"That is to say, on the one hand, they resent us for selling weapons to Xu Xinsu and ruining their good fortune, but on the other hand, they are not willing to offend us directly to prevent us from directly intervening in the war in Fujian, and cut off supplies to them supply." Ning Qi suddenly realized: "That's why they struggled for so long, and finally couldn't help but explode."
"It took so long to take a stand. Maybe there are other reasons that we don't know yet. On the one hand, trying to figure out the opponent's intentions, on the other hand, we must also be prepared for emergencies. After all, this is We have identified a major opponent before we traveled, and we must concentrate on dealing with it." Tao Donglai brought the topic back to the main thread, looked at the executive committee members present and said: "If the opponent's attitude is tougher, then we will. You should be prepared for battle in advance!”
In the preparatory plan before the time travel, the "Eighteen Zhi" had already been listed as one of the major hostile forces listed by the Executive Committee. Although "Eighteen Zhi" has not had any hostile behavior towards the Crossing Group so far, it is no longer possible for the Executive Committee to regard it as a future partner. For opponents like Portugal, the Executive Committee can turn enemies into friends and choose to cooperate for the sake of long-term interests. However, for the "Eighteen Zhi" entrenched in the Taiwan Strait, the Executive Committee has never intended to ease the relationship between the two parties.
On the one hand, this is because the "Eighteen Zhi" occupies the Taiwan Strait, a golden waterway in East Asia, and has a fundamental conflict of interest with the future development plans of the Cross Group. In the future, the Haihan forces will definitely expand northward along the Fu-Guang coastal area, and the importance of a key location like the Taiwan Strait far exceeds that of the Pearl River Estuary. It is impossible for the Executive Committee to let outsiders control it, and It is impossible for the "Eighteen Zhi" to voluntarily give up its territory. It is only a matter of time before the two sides clash over control of this sea area.
On the other hand, Zheng Zhilong was criticized by later generations for his moral integrity. This guy first followed the pirate businessman Li Dan, and later worked for the Dutch, attacking Spanish merchant ships at sea, and then joined the pirate leader Yan Siqi in Taiwan. He changed his career faster than flipping through a book. After Yan Siqi and Li Dan passed away in 1625, Zheng Zhilong inherited part of their family business and raised the banner of "Eighteen Zhi".
After Zheng Zhilong's uprising, he gathered a crowd to attack Fujian and nearly wiped out the entire Fujian Navy. However, after the attack, he changed his identity, accepted the imperial court's offer, and successfully landed ashore. But the first thing this guy did after landing was to lead his original troops to kill his former sworn brothers, and at the same time annex the power of other pirate leaders of the "Eighteen Zhi".
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(End of chapter)